“With regard to power, women don’t have the vanity men have. They don’t need to make power visible, they only want the power to give them the other things they want. Security. Food. Enjoyment. Revenge. Peace. They are rational, power-seeking planners, who think beyond the battle, beyond the victory celebrations. And because they have an inborn capacity to see weakness in their victims, they know instinctively when and how to strike. And when to stop. You can’t learn that...”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Nemesis
“Losing your ife is not the worst think that can happen. The worst thing is to lose your reason for living.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Nemesis
“Who was the mad bastard who taught you to drive?’ he asked, holding on tight as they swerved in and out between cars on the three-lane motorway leading to Ekeberg tunnel. ‘Self-taught,’ Beate said.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Nemesis
“They maintain he wrote The Art of War. Personally, I believe it was a woman. On the surface, The Art of War is a manual about tactics on the battlefield, but at its deepest level it describes how to win conflicts. Or to be more precise, the art of getting what you want at the lowest possible price. The winner of a war is not necessarily the victor. Many have won the crown, but lost so much of their army that they can only rule on their ostensibly defeated enemies’ terms. With regard to power, women don’t have the vanity men have. They don’t need to make power visible, they only want the power to give them the other things they want. Security. Food. Enjoyment. Revenge. Peace. They are rational, power-seeking planners, who think beyond the battle, beyond the victory celebrations. And because they have an inborn capacity to see weakness in their victims, they know instinctively when and how to strike. And when to stop. You can’t learn that, Spiuni.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Nemesis
“Should a person be punished for showing no consideration towards an idiot behaving like an idiot?”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Nemesis
“Everyone asks what the meaning of life is, but no one asks about the meaning of death.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Nemesis
“Он давно уже обратил внимание, что музыканты-бунтари – кумиры его молодости – с годами, как правило, оседают отнюдь не на бунтарских радиоканалах. Харри прекрасно понимал, что это может означать только одно – он тоже стареет.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Nemesis
“It was gone now, the little smile, the glee that Spite gives. The Small-mindedness. The Self-righteousness. The Sadism. The four ‘S’s of revenge.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Nemesis
“A personality disorder doesn’t mean he is stupid. Sufferers are just as good, frequently better, at achieving their aims. What distinguishes them from us is that they want different things.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Nemesis
“As beautiful as an electric chair,”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Nemesis
“Harry sighed and turned to the queue crowding towards the counter. ‘The till is not free. I am from Oslo Police.’ He held up his ID. ‘And this person is arrested for being unable to pronounce th.’ Harry could be small-minded on certain matters. At this particular moment, though, he was extremely pleased with the response. He appreciated being smiled at.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Nemesis
“One maintained that a country like the USA, which stands for certain values like freedom and democracy, has a moral responsibility to avenge attacks on its territory as they are also attacks on its values. ‘Alone the desire for retaliation–and the execution of it–can protect such a vulnerable system as democracy.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Nemesis
“watched the close-cropped, long-legged policeman with the bad back stride quickly out of the canteen.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Nemesis
“Catharsis. Revenge cleanses. Aristotle wrote that the human soul is purged by the fear and compassion that tragedy evokes. It’s a frightening thought that we fulfil the soul’s innermost desire through the tragedy of revenge, isn’t it.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Nemesis
“The great thing about facts is that you don't have to ponder whether they're desirable or not.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Nemesis
“research into why people commit suicide. Do you know what they found the most common cause was?’ ‘That was the sort of thing I was hoping you could answer.’ Harry had to slalom between people on the narrow pavement to keep up with the tubby psychologist. ‘That they didn’t want to live any longer,’ Aune said. ‘Sounds like someone deserves a Nobel Prize.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Nemesis
“The social space between people who don't know each other is form one to three and a half metres. - Beate Lonne”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Nemesis
“The social space between people who don't know each other is from one to three and a half metres. - Beate Lonn”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Nemesis
“Aristotle wrote that the human soul is purged by the fear and compassion that tragedy evokes.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Nemesis
“Møller hesitated in front of the DON’T WALK ON THE GRASS sign. ‘It’s the shortest route, boss.’ ‘Yes,’ Møller said. ‘But my shoes will get dirty.’ ‘As you wish,’ Harry said, walking up the track. ‘Mine are filthy already.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Nemesis
“Did you know that humans are the only living creatures to practice revenge ? - Ståle Aune”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Nemesis
“Good police officers are ugly.’ *”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Nemesis
“We were hounded everywhere we went. They claimed we were thieves. Of course we were, but they didn’t even bother to gather evidence. The proof was we were gypsies. I’m telling you this because to recognise a gypsy you have to know he was born with a low-caste mark on his forehead. We have been persecuted by every single regime in Europe There is no difference between fascists, communists and democrats; the fascists were just a little more efficient. Gypsies make no particular fuss about the Holocaust because the difference from the persecution we were used to was not that great. You don’t seem to believe me?”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Nemesis
“In 1589, Denmark introduced the death penalty for gypsy ringleaders,’ he said. ‘Fifty years later the Swedes decided all male gypsies should be hanged. In Moravia they cut the left ear off gypsy women, in Bohemia the right. The Archbishop of Mainz proclaimed that all gypsies should be executed without a conviction as their way of life was outlawed. In 1725, a law was passed in Prussia that all gypsies over eighteen should be executed without a trial, but later this law was repealed–the age limit was put down to fourteen. Four of my father’s brothers died in captivity. Only one of them during the War. Shall I continue?”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Nemesis
“I’ll never forget the expression in his eyes when he led home a small, tame brown bear. He had bought it with his last money from a group of Ursari. “It can dance,” my father said. The communists paid to see a dancing bear. It made them feel better about themselves. Stefan, my brother, tried to feed the bear, but it wouldn’t eat, and my mother asked if it was sick. He answered that they had walked all the way from Bucharest and just needed to rest. The bear died four days later.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Nemesis
“Fate. Hell and karma. It’s what governs our lives.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Nemesis
“On Christmas Day we broke into our first kiosk, and we knew we had come to the right place.’ Raskol beamed. ‘It was like taking candy from a baby.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Nemesis
“Aye, aye, boss. Regards to your wife.’ Harry craned his head round on the way out. ‘Coriander’s on the far left, bottom shelf.’ Bjarne Møller stood staring into his shopping basket. He remembered the reason now. He liked the alcoholic, obstreperous, stubborn bastard.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Nemesis
Jo Nesbø
Born place: in Oslo, Norway
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“She decided not to look him in the eyes ever again. It was too much like being shoved over the edge of a ravine.”
― Dia Reeves, quote from Slice of Cherry
“The important thing for the remembering author is not what he experienced, but the weaving of his memory, the Penelope work of recollection. Or should one call it, rather, the Penelope work of forgetting? ... And is not his work of spontaneous recollection, in which remembrance is the woof and forgetting the warp, a counterpart to Penelope's work rather than its likeness? For here the day unravels what the night has woven. When we awake each morning, we hold in our hands, usually weakly and loosely, but a few fringes of the tapestry of a lived life, as loomed for us by forgetting. However, with our purposeful activity and, even more, our purposive remembering each day unravels the web and the ornaments of forgetting.”
― Walter Benjamin, quote from Illuminations: Essays and Reflections
“First time's a fluke; second time's a coincidence," said Velius.
"Third time's tradition," finished Erik.”
― Alethea Kontis, quote from Enchanted
“if you are alone, you are all your own; with a companion you are half yourself; so you squander yourself according to the indiscretion of your company.”
― Will Durant, quote from The Story of Civilization
“Now, I’m gonna kiss you ‘coz I’ve been without those sweet lips while you play stupid little bullshit games with me. I won’t be without for another minute. Open your lips, baby, and kiss me.”
― Bella Jewel, quote from Hell's Knights
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